Instagram users are being accused of wearing makeup and hair styles to pose as black women as part of a bid to gain more followers.

Arguments about the practice, dubbed ‘blackfishing’, have become so toxic one 20-year-old student from Birmingham has received death threats and racist abuse, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal. Alicja Brzostowska was deluged with hateful comments and told to “stay white”, after pictures of her wearing braids and tanning product were posted on Twitter alongside one of her as a lighter-skinned 13-year-old.

She said: “I know I haven’t done anything wrong. But to have 200 people telling you you’re dumb and you need to commit suicide, on the first day I was scared to leave the house.

“I thought people would be like ‘she’s blackfishing, let’s throw acid at her’.”

Miss Brzostowska, whose parents are Polish but of Indian ansestry, said she had naturally “olive” skin and dark hair and was often mistaken for being Spanish or Mediterranean.

She said in the photos in which she was accused of blackfishing she had use tanning products, but only to make her skin one shade darker than it naturally was.

The University of Birmingham student said in the pictures circulating online she had been wearing braids for the first time to help promote a friend’s hair care business.

Arguments about cultural appropriation have been prompted in recent years after the US Kardashian and Jenner sisters were criticised for adopting the hairstyles of black women such as braids and cornrows.

The online debate ramped up again this month when a Swedish model, Emma Hallberg, was accused of ‘posing’ as black in pictures on Instagram.

Some of her 200,000 followers expressed shock when pictures of her with lighter skin emerged online last week, with many saying they had assumed she was mixed race due to her skin tone and hairstyles.

The 19-year-old has since said she doesn’t see herself as “anything else than white” and that she gets “a deep tan naturally from the sun.”

Since the furore over Miss Hallberg erupted, a number of Twitter threads have been dedicated to hunting and naming other people supposedly caught ‘blackfishing’.

The term blackfishing is an adaption of the term catfishing, which is where someone adopts a false persona online to deceive others.

Last week Miss Brzostowska woke up to a stream of messages from friends telling her she was being named in a tweet.

The third-year accounting and finance student said: “The next thing you know my phone is blowing up with notifications and I just felt really anxious because I didn't know what was going on.”

Since then Miss Brzostowska has received around 200 messages including one that read “White bitch, your [sic] just another wanna be African American”

Miss Brzostowska now worries the viral attention she has been receiving could affect her ambitions to forge a career in business and marketing and grow the mental health charity she has founded while at university, Underscore.

“I am not someone who disregards people’s opinion,” she said. “But I was not trying to be black - I have not even used the black emoji in my life.”

Nobody should receive abuse for how they look and dress. Of which I completely condemn

Though I do think this trend is being created through a prism of victim mentality. To pass themselves off as one of the groups perceived to seen as a victim. In other words to garner more sympathy and attention.

I do not think they are doing this to decieve anyone, but be a part of the group, they perceive gains more attention and notice

I'm not sure what the fuss is about. Black women have straightened their hair for decades (copying a white persons hair texture?) so why cant a white woman wear braids? Did anyone think Bo Derrick was trying to black fish in the film 10.

Many white women go dark in the sun (I do myself) not because they are hankering to be black, but because that's who they are.

It seems to me some people are just latching on to this so they can be offended about something.

Syl wrote:I'm not sure what the fuss is about. Black women have straightened their hair for decades (copying a white persons hair texture?) so why cant a white woman wear braids? Did anyone think Bo Derrick was trying to black fish in the film 10.

Many white women go dark in the sun (I do myself) not because they are hankering to be black, but because that's who they are.

It seems to me some people are just latching on to this so they can be offended about something.

I was with you until your last comment. Why on earth would people be offended about people emulating blacks. Or...Oh, I get it. It's white supremacists who are offended that black features or characteristics are becoming popular. Now it makes sense.

I don't remember any messaging around Bo Derrick in the move '10'. I was blinded by the nude scene.

Syl wrote:I'm not sure what the fuss is about. Black women have straightened their hair for decades (copying a white persons hair texture?) so why cant a white woman wear braids? Did anyone think Bo Derrick was trying to black fish in the film 10.

Many white women go dark in the sun (I do myself) not because they are hankering to be black, but because that's who they are.

It seems to me some people are just latching on to this so they can be offended about something.

I was with you until your last comment. Why on earth would people be offended about people emulating blacks. Or...Oh, I get it. It's white supremacists who are offended that black features or characteristics are becoming popular. Now it makes sense.

I don't remember any messaging around Bo Derrick in the move '10'. I was blinded by the nude scene.

Syl wrote:I'm not sure what the fuss is about. Black women have straightened their hair for decades (copying a white persons hair texture?) so why cant a white woman wear braids? Did anyone think Bo Derrick was trying to black fish in the film 10.

Many white women go dark in the sun (I do myself) not because they are hankering to be black, but because that's who they are.

It seems to me some people are just latching on to this so they can be offended about something.

I was with you until your last comment. Why on earth would people be offended about people emulating blacks. Or...Oh, I get it. It's white supremacists who are offended that black features or characteristics are becoming popular. Now it makes sense.

I don't remember any messaging around Bo Derrick in the move '10'. I was blinded by the nude scene.

Well obviously some people are offended by it, unless they go round making death threats when they are unoffended.Whether said offended are white or black isnt clear, what is clear is that they are bloody pathetic

Raggamuffin wrote:It's more likely to be black people who are objecting.

I should think that black people would be flattered. The only time I’ve known black people to object—and that would be women—is when they see a white woman pursuing a black man. They call that “jungle fever”.

Syl wrote:Well obviously some people are offended by it, unless they go round making death threats when they are unoffended.Whether said offended are white or black isnt clear, what is clear is that they are bloody pathetic

The only basis to be "offended" is jealousy. Unless imitation is used to ridicule, like Al Jolson, imitation is a form of flattery. Certainly it is in fashion and style, where motive is unspoken. In that case, those who would be offended would be those who do not wish well of the participants.

Syl wrote:Well you seem to think it would be white people objecting, I would think black people would be more inclined to object to what they see as white imposters trying to be what they are not.

The whole thing is ridiculous anyway.

What do you mean, "what they are not"? They are being treated in a way that is most flattering. They are being imitated.

I think the whole thing is cooked up by irritated white supremacists, who are jealous when blacks are admired. It offends their sense of assumed superiority. But they deflect that obviously racist attitude, and make it into a fashion discussion.

Syl wrote:Well you seem to think it would be white people objecting, I would think black people would be more inclined to object to what they see as white imposters trying to be what they are not.

The whole thing is ridiculous anyway.

What do you mean, "what they are not"? They are being treated in a way that is most flattering. They are being imitated.

I think the whole thing is cooked up by irritated white supremacists, who are jealous when blacks are admired. It offends their sense of assumed superiority. But they deflect that obviously racist attitude, and make it into a fashion discussion.

I don't agree. This one suggests that it was written by a black person.

Syl wrote:Well you seem to think it would be white people objecting, I would think black people would be more inclined to object to what they see as white imposters trying to be what they are not.

The whole thing is ridiculous anyway.

What do you mean, "what they are not"? They are being treated in a way that is most flattering. They are being imitated.

I think the whole thing is cooked up by irritated white supremacists, who are jealous when blacks are admired. It offends their sense of assumed superiority. But they deflect that obviously racist attitude, and make it into a fashion discussion.

Its obvious what I mean Quill. They (white women) are not black.Maybe black people dont want to be imitated by white people...perhaps they find it offensive.

Or maybe, like I said at the beginning, some people are desperately looking for something to be offended about.

What do you mean, "what they are not"? They are being treated in a way that is most flattering. They are being imitated.

I think the whole thing is cooked up by irritated white supremacists, who are jealous when blacks are admired. It offends their sense of assumed superiority. But they deflect that obviously racist attitude, and make it into a fashion discussion.

I don't agree. This one suggests that it was written by a black person.

“White bitch, your [sic] just another wanna be African American”

That sounds suspiciously like a black woman who resents white women chasing after her black man. Lol. Remember, I mentioned that in my one (exception) example?

Back in the 1960's black men came into favor with white women (eg, Obama's mother and father), and black women began to feel left out. It's been a sore spot with some black women ever since--they call it the 'jungle fever' syndrome--and methinks you uncovered one such disgruntled black woman.

If you find a black woman who grew up in that era, you will likely elicit such a response. But it has to do more with the background/age of the woman, than any present situation.